Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion

Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion

Unidentified artist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This painting depicts the famous party held by Wang Xizhi at the Orchid Pavilion in 353 CE, when a group of scholars gathered to write poems and drink wine along the banks of a stream. Working within the intimate fan format, the artist could not spread out the stream as in a handscroll; instead, the men are clustered in the bottom half of the composition as the stream snakes around them. The host of the party sits in the pavilion at right, authoring the famous preface that would record the event for posterity.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.